Hi @green_potato! Welcome to our forum! I’m excited that you’ll be having surgery in 5 days & that your surgeon plans to cut your styloid back to the skull base. Would you mind sharing the name of your surgeon if you have good results. We’d love to add the name to our Doctors’ List if he does a good surgery for you.
I looked at your images, & your left styloid is much thicker than your right one which is most likely the reason it is compressing your IJV against C-1. Your right styloid, besides being thinner, is also angled more downward which may be helping it to avoid the IJV.
It can take some weeks or a couple of months after the styloid is removed for the jugular vein to re-open so symptoms can stay for awhile. If the IJV does open up, the symptoms will gradually disappear. If the symptoms don’t go away then you will need to follow up with a vascular or neurovascular surgeon. Here is advice @KoolDude gave to another member earlier today:
“Get neurovascular or interventional neuro-radiologist to do Catheter angiogram/Venogram to properly assess your…jugular vein blood flow. After removing the Styloid, you might need endovascular procedure for ballooning the jugulars if they don’t open up.”
We have members whose IJVs have successfully re-opened after the styloid was removed & others who have not had that happen. After surgery, sleep & rest w/ your head elevated to 30º using a wedge shaped pillow with some bed pillows on top to help increase the angle & comfort level. Sleeping very elevated is not natural so it won’t be very comfortable but it will help decrease the swelling in your neck & throat. I slept on mine for 6 weeks after surgery but others have only needed it for a few days or a week. Also, get at least 2 gel ice packs so you can ice your neck every few hours for at least the first week after surgery. Place a thin towel between the ice pack & your incision to protect your skin. Leave the ice on for 15 min. & off for at least 45 min.
You may have a sore throat & a stiff jaw after surgery so have some soft food in the house you can eat w/o much chewing. Here’s a list one of our members posted a few years ago: Surgery shopping list
We also warn our members that the opioid pain meds often prescribed are very constipating. If you plan to take a prescription drug, take a laxative & stool softener with it to help prevent that uncomfy problem.
I’ll add your surgery date to my calendar & will pray for you then. I hope that one surgery is all you need to feel better! 